Detection of the physical presence of a user in an office environment may be determined by having the user manually set a presence indicator. An application executing on a user's computer may be used to record a presence indicator setting. The presence indicator may be manually set by a user, such as by selection of a setting using a mouse or other input device connected to the user's computer. One problem with manually setting a presence indicator is that the user may forget to perform necessary manual updates to the presence indicator in accordance with any changes to the user's presence.
In an effort to overcome the foregoing drawback associated with manually setting a presence indicator, another technique provides for updating the presence indicator based on inferences drawn from the activity or inactivity of the user's computer. If there is inactivity on the user's computer, such as may be the result of a screen saver being displayed, the presence indicator setting may be automatically updated to indicate that the user is not physically present. However, concluding such an inference of presence based on computer activity level may also not accurately reflect the actual status of the user's presence. It may be that a user is physically in the office and near his/her computer, but not currently working on the computer. In such instances, the presence indicator may be automatically updated to indicate that the user is not present when the user may in fact be in his/her office performing a task other than one using the computer.